D&D (2024) I am highly skeptical of the Unreal VTT

[payn]

In my experience, asset heavy VTTs make improv harder and make the game focus too much on combat and the grid. Just having a regular old VTT map up during exploration changes the nature of dungeon crawls, for example, so having a constant Dwarven Forge level setup is going to present problems too.

Hmm, sometimes I wonder if folks are using the same programs as I am? Not surprising that folks are cool to this idea tech has always been divisive to gamers.

I'm not too worried because if this thing is too ridged and microtransaction based in nature, all the other VTTs, which are not, will eat its lunch.

 

[LordEntrails]

Des someone have a link to the announcement or more info? I'm obviously missing a lot of info.

 

[Reynard]

Des someone have a link to the announcement or more info? I'm obviously missing a lot of info.

 

[LordEntrails]

The video seems to be full of self-contradictions.
"One D&D", yea I see all sorts of problems with that marketing tag.
Then CP: 'D&D doesn't have editions anymore' and the next person 'Fifth Edition...'

But yeah, not only am I skeptical of them being able to deliver on their vision, I don't think I want it to succeed either.

 

[THEMNGMNT]

I'm not a VTT player but if it turns out great I'll give it a spin. I think it's obvious that the VTT won't be robust in 2024, but maybe in 5 years it could be awesome.

 

[Torquar]

I recall the vaporware 4e VTT.

I don't have a particularly powerful PC (I don't play video games that much and when I do it's on the PS4 or Switch) and I'm skeptical about how smoothly it would run an Unreal Engine VTT.

We don't know anything about it yet, but it might be hosted by D&D Beyond and streamed to your pc/phone/tablet/smart tv.

 

[Quickleaf]

Not skeptical that it will come out, but skeptical that it is a good way to play D&D. I honestly believe that the fancier the VTT, the more it detracts from anything not combat, and makes it harder to run things on the fly or even homebrew prepped.

Thoughts?

I agree 110% and this "board game think" phenomenon matches my own experience running and playing D&D using Roll20, Astral Tabletop, and Foundry. (Edit: heck, I even noticed it using physical battle maps at the table) Specifically, the more detailed the digital map, the more players begin to forget "the map is not the terrain." And the less players can easily see each others' faces, the more roleplaying suffers (esp. inter-player RP).

That's all my personal experience, so YMMV, but I do think something important is lost in the transition to increasingly detailed VTTs. I think it will be cool as heck if they can pull this off in Unreal Engine with tilt shift camera, and I would definitely try it out, but I'd be hesitant to commit to "every session we're running in Unreal Engine" because I think that might do more harm than good in the long run.

 

[Mort]

Count me in with the highly skeptical crowd!

My group had enough problems adapting to roll20 during the pandemic - and only really "kind of" did.

More than that, prepping adventures was a chore because I felt like I was being a set designer more than a DM some of the time!

And that was 2D with easy to port images, maps etc.

A 3D environment like the one they are showing? The prep time alone seems like it would be an insurmountable hurdle for me.

I'd love it if it was a great enhancement to the game that was beneficial or even neutral to my prep time - but I'm HIGHLY skeptical of either.

 

[overgeeked]

Not skeptical that it will come out, but skeptical that it is a good way to play D&D. I honestly believe that the fancier the VTT, the more it detracts from anything not combat, and makes it harder to run things on the fly or even homebrew prepped.

Thoughts?

Absolutely agree.

 

[R_J_K75]

But yeah, not only am I skeptical of them being able to deliver on their vision, I don't think I want it to succeed either.

I think at this point I'd prefer WotC moved on from 5e and just did another major overhaul of the rules and called it 6E. Nothing they announced today really got me excited, maybe the Book of Many Things or the Phandelver CS. Doubt I'll buy the heist adventures book, or the Giants one. Im on the fence for Planescape after seeing the Spelljammer slipcase. Way too much art and the shorter page count doesnt leave me too hopeful. Seeing as the Rock of Bral only got 5 or 6 pages this doesnt bode well for Sigil. Their insistance to not support settings after the initial book release is just annoying because Ive gotten burned on DMs Guild purchases.